activity level

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Ellst85
Ellst85 Posts: 30 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Boring and asked a million times before I know!
I clock up around 12000 steps a day on my pedometer on my phone- so that's just when I'm walking around with my phone- doesn't include walking around at work etc.
I go to the gym c. 4 days a week and do weights mostly, I only log if I do cardio.
I've set my activity level to slightly active and have call of around 1500. Does this seem right to people?

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    With MFP your activity level is just your day to day hum drum...you don't account for exercise in your activity level, you account for it after the fact when you log it and earn those calories to "eat back".

    I would set it to light active for your walking, etc and log other exercise separately. If you want to include exercise in your activity level I would recommend using a TDEE calculator and just customizing your goals.
  • elliej
    elliej Posts: 466 Member
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    Did you do all those steps and walk around at work before you decided to lose weight? I only log exercise that gets my heart rate up that I didn't do before. Without knowing your TDEE (google for many calculators) and without doing a bit of trial and error you just won't know.
  • Ellst85
    Ellst85 Posts: 30 Member
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    Ok thanks guys! Yeah I'm pretty active so I don't see the point in logging walking and things I only log what I do as intentional exercise but wasn't sure what to set my TDEE as or if I think I'm fairly active but am actually sedentary. I'll look into it anyway. Thanks!
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    The truth is, you just have to pick one, log and track for a while, and then reassess compared to actual results.

    Those definitions of "lightly active" or "active" are meaningless. What matters is the number of calories that they add to your day, and the projected rate of weight loss.

    For instance, let's say your goal is to lose 1lb/week. If you set it to lightly active, log and track for a couple of months, and stick to the goal that MFP sets out for you, you should be able to see whether your weight loss is averaging 1lb/week. If it's faster, increase the activity level to "active" or eat more exercise calories back. If it's slower, drop it to "sedentary" or eat fewer exercise calories back.

    Trial and error FTW.

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